|
| *deep breath* ... It's been a long day! I absolutely cannot believe it's only 6:40, when it feels like at least 9:00... at which point I wouldn't feel quite so ridiculous for wanting to go to bed already... We had a long, LONG appointment - mostly wait time - at maternal fetal medicine today, so that we could have a geneticist order a test for an endocrine condition that 2 of my nieces have. Man, was that ever frustrating. The reason we're getting tested is because, if we are both carriers, we can have some prenatal treatment that can help the baby to develop normally. (I don't want to get into too many details here.) This is where it gets annoying. When I was 7 weeks along, my OB doc told me a horror story about a woman who didn't get treated, and her baby was born very abnormal (yet treatable by surgery). This OB proceeded to tell me how important it was that I be tested so that I could start steroid treatment, if necessary, at 12 weeks. Then she made me this appointment with maternal fetal medicine at 10.5 weeks' gestation! In the meantime, I read articles from urology and endocrinology journals that recommended treatment starting at 6-7 weeks... Genetic testing, I had heard, can take a couple weeks to yield results... See what I'm getting at here?? So today we finally had our appointment, and afterwards my hubby and I each had our blood drawn for the molecular genetic testing. The results will be in after about 15 business days - at which point I will be 13 weeks along!!!! Yes, I would say I have sufficient reason to be upset! Everyone is stressing how important this testing is, but delaying it so that it will basically be too late for the treatment to do any good if we are carriers. :( We just want a healthy baby!!! We did go ahead and get the tests done today, because "apparently" treatment even starting at 13 weeks can do some good for the baby. Plus, this is something we'll only have to do once. If one of us is not a carrier, we'll never think about it again! We're SO hoping that that is the case!!!
On a good note though, we had an ultrasound at the beginning of the appointment, and everything looked great! The baby looks way more like a baby than it did last time, when it was just a tiny smudge. Now he/she is a big-headed peanut. :) It moved around quite a bit and looked like it was doing crunches or the robot! lol So cute!! :) It was really reassuring to see that the baby was growing and that the heartbeat was still going strong, at 175 beats per minute today.
School/clinicals are going well. I'm in geriatrics now - primary care, so I like it. My "morning" (all day) sickness has started to get better, although this week I was plagued by strep throat instead. Not fun!!
So, life is good. Adam is wonderful. He makes life great. :)
| | |
| Pregnancy test was positive! :) I'm just over 5 weeks along now, and waiting not-so-patiently for my first doctor's appointment on the 15th! We're really excited! It took a couple days for everything to sink in, but now the hardest part is just making ourselves not go too crazy by getting a lot of stuff ready too early. I SO wish I were busy at work right now!! Last Mon. I started a 2-week rotation in pain management. I would have been in the clinic from 7 to at least 3 every day. However, the first day I went, I realized that, from 7-12 everything they do is guided by x-ray! I can't be in a room with radiation!! So all week, I worked in the clinic from 1-3 - or even less. To get out of that situation, I switched to EKG reading this week. Turns out it's just as low-key! Today I was there for less than 2 hours!!! So I come home by lunch time, sit around, and waste time on thebump.com. It's pretty boring. But at least I'm not worrying all the time now. For the first few days after we found out, I was just worrying that something would happen to the baby. I still know that it's very early, and anything could happen... but it's not constantly on my mind.
Anyway, I think I'll go watch my 4th episode of 30 Rock for the afternoon... lol
| | |
| I finished my internal medicine rotation yesterday. It was amazing. I frickin love primary care, seriously. And I like hospital-based medicine much more than I thought I did, maybe even more than ambulatory! I like the continuity of seeing someone for the duration of his/her stay and managing every aspect of their care.
One patient was admitted to our service for the last 2 weeks I was there. I did his admission history and physical, saw him every day, and said goodbye to him yesterday. He came with a partial small bowel obstruction and unexplained ascites, and yesterday received a terminal cancer diagnosis. He's in his early 50s. My attending dr. and I talked to him yesterday about his treatment options. Then I told him that I wouldn't see him again since it was my last day of IM. He asked me if I had learned anything. My eyes started to well up. I told him, yes, I sure did, and thanked him for helping me learn.
Yesterday I also saw a patient who has been healthy all his life, who has been short of breath for the last couple months. He went for a stress test yesterday, which was abnormal. He then went for a heart cath, and the labwork they did there showed that he was SEVERELY anemic. He was admitted to our service, and we examined him. Nicest guy in the world. I didn't think to check for lymphadenopathy, but my attending dr. did. He had remarkably large swollen lymph nodes in his armpits and neck... indicative of some type of leukemia.  I'll never forget the way my heart dropped when I felt that ominous finding.
I love patients so, so much. I care so much for them, and I feel extremely privileged to get the chance to take care of them!! I only hope I get to make 10% of the difference in their lives that they make in mine!
**********
TMI up ahead:
We don't know anything definite on the baby front yet. But I think it's likely that I'm pregnant! :) I've had a definite tri-phasic shift in my basal body temperature, which is something seen in pregnancy; my breasts are sore; and I've been feeling kinda nauseous for most of the last few days. I already took a couple tests (even though I knew it was too early!! hehe) and they were negative, but today or tomorrow I should be able to take one that would be more accurate, since I'm only 3 days out from my period now. So exciting!! :)
One thing that does scare me, though, is the pain I'm still feeling near my right ovary. It's the same endometriosis pain I've had for a long time, but for some reason it makes me think of the possibility of ectopic pregnancy. I think of worst-case scenarios sometimes - anybody else do that? - and I think of collapsing while I'm at work, losing a baby and a fallopian tube, and having to be admitted to the hospital where all of my peers work. You could say it's a prominent fear I have. My other health fears include appendicitis, autoimmune conditions, and a brain tumor.
I'm home relaxing and watching season 1 of Private Practice today while Adam's working. Thinking about starting Christmas shopping, but we'll see if that happens. Ciao everybody.
| | |
| Well, we decided to try for a baby this month!! We've been talking about it for a while and trying to find a good time. I know, everyone says there is never a perfect time to have a baby. But still, we were looking for a semi-convenient time. Now seems pretty good actually... I would be due the beginning of July, so I'd be able to take 8 weeks off from clinicals and return in time to do audition rotations and residency interviews, which run Sept. - Dec. of next year. If it doesn't happen this month, we could maybe try next month, but if it still doesn't happen, I think we would need to wait 4-5 more months, so that I could get through interview season without being on maternity leave. We're excited about this, but having it as a real possibility is so scary!! EVERYTHING would change! Today I was really tired and kinda irritable, and I was thinking/worrying about all of the what-ifs. I talked to Adam about it for a long time, and he reassured me and made me feel a lot better. Then I went into the living room to do some things on the computer that I need to do for school, and after a while I went back into his office to say hi. He was asleep on the futon (guess he was tired today too!), but a browser on his computer was open to a page listing jogging strollers!! He's so sweet. He'll be the cutest dad ever.  I can hardly wait until a couple weeks from now when we find out if we conceived! I'll tell ya though, it sure has been fun trying! heheheh  | | |
| Well, we're completely settled into our new home, and I've finished my first rotation, which was 4 weeks in family practice. I loved it!!!! I really did. Seriously, for a few days I was extremely emotional about how much I loved it. It's so nice, after I've worked so hard in medical school, to realize that it's already been 100% worth it. I have that feeling that I've had several times in my life - that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. Every morning, I can't wait to go to the hospital or the office to take care of patients and learn new things. I get sad on the days that we just have didactic lectures, because I would rather be seeing patients. Since my first couple days in the clinic, my mind's been saying, "You were MADE for this! You're finally here!!" 
| | |
|
